Rumson basketball tournament puts local player's legacy in overtime

RUMSON – For the Dooley family, basketball is a family affair, and almost all of them were on hand at Holy Cross School on Friday afternoon.

But the Dooleys and the 25 teams in the gym and parking lot were there for more than basketball.

“Remember, you’re doing it to help Jay help the kids,” Jerry Dooley, organizer of the Jay Dooley Memorial Foundation 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, said to the players spread throughout the gym.

Children ages 10 to 15 years old took the courts to compete in the sport Jay Dooley loved.

Jay was a Monmouth University and Holy Cross basketball player who died in 2009 at 29 years old after struggling with a learning disability and depression.

After Jay’s funeral, an anonymous donor gave the Dooley family a donation, which was used as seed money for a foundation - four years later, that foundation has raised more than 100,000 to help children with learning disabilities and behavioral health issues like Attention Deficit Disorder, autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

“We’re pretty diverse in what we do,” Dooley said. “The first few years we were involved with helping two grammar schools, Holy Cross and St. Benedict, with their special needs program for children who have learning disabilities. We’ve expanded to helping more children, and some adults, with depression and mental health issues. That’s really our mission.”

A mission that fills an often overlooked gap in children’s health care, Dooley said.

“Learning disabilities are not a real tangible item, something you can put your hands on,” Dooley said. “It is not as if you’re going after juvenile diabetes or even cancer for that matter.”

Dooley said basketball was not just special to his son, but to his entire family.

“My family has a basketball background,” Dooley said. “I am one of five boys, I have brothers that play basketball, a brother that coaches in the college ranks, my father was a player and coach in his day, it is something that is engrained in our family.”

As the action continued throughout the afternoon, family members staffed tables selling apparel and jewelry to benefit the foundation.

Jerry’s grandchildren sold handmade embroidery floss bracelets and necklaces to further the cause as their parents looked on.

“Jay was my cousin,” said Chrissy Budsock, 10. “It was my idea to raise money for the foundation by selling necklaces.”

Next to her was Isabela Holguin, 9, who helped sell the jewelry.

“I like basketball because my uncle, he was really good at shooting, and I always wanted to be like him,” Isabela said.

Sean Horan helped coach teams and looked on as two of his children competed.

“I’ve been coming down for four years to this,” Horan said. “It is great how the community comes together for this, you see so many from the town supporting the foundation and the tournament.”

Horan encouraged teams to thank their referees and score keepers, shake hands with their opponents and treat each other with kindness and respect.

“I didn’t know Jay, but I feel like this is what Jerry stands for and it is what Jay would do,” Horan said. “Part of the game is teaching young people to play as a team with each other and be good people.”

In the mean time, Jerry Dooley darted between the six basketball courts, offering frozen towels to players in the 95-degree heat.

While Friday’s actions were limited to the youngsters, the adult competition takes place Saturday, with games beginning at 8 a.m.

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“The players come from all over, there are teams in from Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Philadelphia – but the majority are from New Jersey,” Dooley said. “We get a lot of players who have played college basketball all the way down to weekend warriors. We get guys in who have been All-Americans. We have kids who have gone to Holy Cross and then on to high school who have been All-State, so we have a wide array of players that come in.”

Leaning back against the walls of a school hallway before the competition began, Jerry said the foundation is a good way to honor his son.

“He loved kids, and kids loved him,” Jerry said. “He had a very magnanimous personality. Kids, even adults, were attracted to him. He had the 'It' factor, he had 'It' – he was just a very personable, loving guy.”

That gentle, loving and affable legacy is in good hands with the Dooley family.